Reflections in the Mirror
by SilverThorn
Summary: Rikku wasn't the first person Ansem transplanted a foreign soul into. A look into what gave Ansem the tools to grant himself immortality, and the aftermath of tampering with the fragile connection between body and being.
1. Report 17

Ansem Report

Re: New Subject Data

Sbj: New Subject/Experimental Procedure

Fwd: …

Ansem Report 17

As in my previous reports, I have been discussing the effects of darkness upon a mortal heart. I have seen the growth of darkness and have also witnesses the profound changes that happen to a mortal who's heart has been taken over- consumed if you will- by the darkness. These victims become the darkness themselves or rather, they become the Heartless themselves; emotionless, sentinel creatures that feed solely on the hearts of the living, seeking the very heart of the world itself. Truly, they are the monsters that we fear.

Previous experiments have shown me how to reproduces these beings both artificially and naturally. Furthermore, these experiments have allowed me the slightest insight into the behaviors and the purpose of these creatures.

Recently, the king of another world has come to tell me of the heart of the worlds and the story of the Keyblade and the chosen one who would wield this mighty weapon in order to change the fates of all the worlds. The stories differ on _how_ the worlds would change. The Keyblade could bring destruction or salvation onto both worlds. I had sworn to seek out this Keyblade in order to further understand the truth behind the Heartless and their dynamic power. My body has grown weak with age, unfortunately, and I fear that I will not be able to further my investigations in this form. So, somehow, I needed to find a way to shed my body and become like the darkness itself. How?

One option was to become a Heartless. No longer would I retain this mortal foil, but instead I would be the shadow cast off by light. However, too little is known about the Heartless and I fear to risk it. It is impossible to say what exactly would happen to my mind during the transformation. There are too many uncontrollable variables to risk jeopardizing all the work that I've put into the program so far.

The second option came to me today. While walking through the grounds outside of my home, a very rare incident indeed, I came across a coffin. There was no signs that it had once been underground, nor was there any indication of where it came from. Curious, and slightly interested by this morbid situation, I opened it. I was expecting to find some half decomposed corpse staring back at me from the casket. Much to my surprise there was nothing of the sort. Resting inside lay a young man. At first I mistook him for dead but one could hardly blame that pretense. He was incredibly pale, not in a pasty sort of way mind you, but rather in a clear, attractive way. The way one would see a porcelain doll. He was dressed in such heavy clothing that it was hard to see much of his lower face or any signs of movement that could be attributed to breathing.

I brought the "body" back to my home and to my laboratory. Halfway through the ride, he started to stir- only a slight twitch in his facial muscles- but that was enough to tell me that he was indeed alive.

Once I got him back to my laboratory and completed a full examination. The man was in perfect health- if only unconscious. Further examination was completed upon the subject's awakening. Much to my surprise, a metallic claw glove covered the man's left arm from the olecranon process down. It was fully responsive and very sensitive to all stimuli. For a full health report refer to Health Report LAB001Vin. He suffered mild amnesia and a slight concussion so I was unable to obtain any information from where he came from.

However, it was not the appearance of the man that interested me. His brain waves were highly unusual- almost as if there were five separate patterns overlapped. Furthermore, the man appeared to have five hearts. No, not the actual organ. As there is a physical heart there is also a "mental heart." This is the heart that the soul or essence of the being is kept in and, this is also the place where darkness resides. These are the hearts that the Heartless feed upon. In the case of the man that I found, he was in possession of five hearts- one normal and four of beings of pure darkness. It was almost as if the other four hearts were living like parasites off of the man. I believed that I could separate the four parasitic hearts from the host, binding them into empty human vessels. Furthermore, could this procedure be reversed? Is it possible for an organism's "mental heart" to be removed and placed into a host's body? What would happen to the host as a result?


	2. Prologue

Prologue…

Sora sighed happily but tired nonetheless. He had just faced the mammoth Oogy-Boogy, beaten him twice and sealed the keyhole for Halloween Town. It meant that he was one world closer to finding Riku and Kairi, and one world closer to helping Goofy and Donald find the king. The four of them were currently in the lab, regrouping after the battle. The good doctor was busy at the moment and they were left alone.

"Sora," Jack said, scratching his bony head, "thank you so much for helping to tame the heartless. It's a shame that I won't be able to have them dance with me this Halloween but I guess I can work on the guidance system some more. Who knows, maybe Dr. Ficklestine and I will have them up and running by next Halloween!"

Sora smiled at the skeleton's enthusiasm. "Hopefully! We'll be sure to visit you." The brunette rubbed his eyes, trying to remove the sleep from them. "We should be going though… it's really late."

"We do have to get going." Donald agreed, fingers still wrapped around his staff. Goofy stood behind him, cleaning the dust off his shield.

"Why don't you all stay with Doctor Ficklestine?" Jack suggested. "It's much too late for you to be traveling."

"Well," Goofy stood there mulling over the idea, "it is true that waiting one night won't hurt. And I am tired."

"I guess," Donald said.

"Then I guess it's settled." Sora exclaimed. "We would be honored to stay overnight. Thank you very much."

"No Sora, thank you." The four looked up as the old Doctor and Sally both entered the room. "We owe you for your help. The heartless would have run amuck in the town, causing all types of trouble, if you and your party hadn't stopped them. There is no way for us to repay you enough."

"I…thank you," Sora replied quiet embarrassed about the compliment. "Riku would be proud of me." He thought with a quiet smile. "I will find you, Riku."

"Thank you for the lodging." Sora said aloud. The very thought of being able to sleep weighted his eye lids and he could feel himself fighting to stay awake. "I'm really tired. I am really sorry that I can't stay up to talk. Good night!"

With Sally's directions Sora quickly found his way to the bedroom with every honest intention of falling asleep. He took off the leather vampire costume that he was wearing to fit in with the denizens of Halloween town and slipped into bed under surprisingly soft silken sheets. However, as he lay there staring up at the ceiling he lost all need to sleep.

"Riku," he allowed the name to slip quietly into the room. "I'm so worried about you. Have you found Kairi yet?" He waited for the room to answer him, although he knew he would only receive silence. He wanted an answer. "Where are you?"

The brunette moaned in frustration. Now he couldn't sleep. Great. Sora brushed his long bangs out of his eyes and closed them, trying to will him to sleep. "I should have asked you to come with me last time." He whispered to the ceiling. "Why didn't I? I had spent so much time looking for you and Kairi and then I got the keyblade and I lost sight of what was my real purpose. I found you and then I lost you again. I'm so _stupid_! We could've looked for her together."

He growled in frustration and spun himself onto his side, eyes open once again to stair at the wall. He could feel his eyes prickling with tears. "How did I get stuck with this anyway?" He asked the Riku-wall. With in a few minutes he was asleep.

"Wakie, wakie!" Goofy said in his normally bubbly way. "Time to get up. Donald says that we gotta get going."

Sora rolled over in response and buried his head into his pillow. He was so tired. Although he had managed to get to sleep, he still had horrible nightmares that woke him up hourly. He was still exhausted.

He could hear Goofy give a little huff and the shield knight was about to try to raise him again, but Sora gave a little defeated sigh and lifted his head from the pillow.

"I'll be down in a minute… I need to get dressed."

"Gawrsh, Sora," Goofy responded. "You look really tired. Are you sick?"

"No," Sora replied. "I'm fine… I just need to sleep for a little bit." Although Goofy looked at the brunette with a bit of incredulity, he nodded and left the room to go downstairs.

Sora pushed himself up and swung his legs over the side of the bed. He winced slightly as he padded across the cold stone floor to gather up the costume that he had dumped on the floor the previous night. He couldn't wait to abandon the leather for his normal outfit. As much as he liked how it looked, it just wasn't his style. "It's really something Riku would wear," he noted. Still, he dressed himself and made the bed. Giving the room a final once over, he left it, shutting the door behind him. Goofy and Donald were nowhere to be seen. "They're downstairs," he told himself, "probably waiting for you." Sora started to walk down one end of the hallway, the way he believed Sally led him the night before. Not paying particular attention, he turned right to find the staircase that would lead him down to the others.

"Ow!" Sora yelped. "What?" The staircase that should be there wasn't. Sora rubbed his shin dejectedly and glared at the table sitting there instead of the intended staircase.

"Well, if this wasn't the way Sally brought me to the room…then how do I get back?" Sora looked around the hallway, trying to see if he might have possibly taken a wrong turn and missed the stairs. No luck. The keybearer picked himself up. "I guess I was too tired last night to notice how I got here." He mumbled. "I'll just have to walk around until I find my way out."

Sora started back towards his room. "I'm sure that if it isn't this way, then it's the other way." Walking back the way he came, Sora encountered another hallway with smooth stonewalls that seemed to stretch on forever. The hallway his room was located on only minutes before.

"This is… so creepy…" Sora muttered to himself, running his hands over the cool marble. There was no hint that a door had been there before, no raised surface, no cracks or switches, nothing that would indicate that the wall had not been there forever. "So strange." He allowed his hand to slide across the wall as he walked towards where he believed the hallway ended. The more he moved down the hall, the more the walls seemed to extend. His hand slipped along the stone, guiding him through the steadily darkening passage. Sora felt like he had walked forever, the hallway was now totally dark and he pressed himself up against it as fully as he could manage. His breath seemed to catch in his throat as he pressed on along the unbroken wall.

"I need to turn around." Sora thought desperately to himself. "I need to go back, I need to go back to the others." Sora felt his breath speed up; his chest tightened painfully as he struggled to keep his head from spinning. This hallway was just to dark; it reminded him too much of Darkside, and the pool of black that had swallowed Riku up back on Destiny Island. He felt as if it were swallowing him up also… as if the pool were filling his lungs and pressing against his heart. He felt it swallow at his hope, leaving him with an emptiness that almost moved him to tears. "I need to turn around." Sora fumbled back in the other direction, almost losing the wall in his compulsion to be back with the others. "…need to get back…" Sora's hands, still trailing next to the wall, hit a corner. "what?" He ran his hands in front of him. Solid. It was a solid wall, the same as the one he was following earlier. He was trapped. The only way for him to go would be further forward, deeper into the darkness. Sora felt his legs threaten to give out from underneath him, and with a choked cry, he fell against the wall, using the unwanted obstacle to hold him up.

_Who are you?_ Sora looked around at the darkness accusingly. _Who are you?_ "Who are you?" Sora asked out loud. "What do you want with me? Why did you lead me here?" Sora felt his anger rising. Something was here, hiding in these giant shadows, mocking him… leading him somewhere. And it refused to answer him. He threw himself around to face the unseen enemy. "What do you want me to do here?"

He called out, frustrated. "What do you want!" His voice echoed endlessly down the corridor, bouncing off the walls causing it to distort and become evil sounding, malicious, a mockery of his questions and his fear. "Why don't you answer me?"

He couldn't help but suppress a shiver. Something was different this time. The haunting echoes that called back to him didn't come. the darkness, or whatever was listening, seemed to swallow them up. There was a breeze, suddenly, sweeping across his bare legs.

_Follow me,_ the wind seemed to cry and pull at his skin, coaxing him forward. _Follow me._ And Sora obligingly took a step forward into the darkness.


End file.
